Coffee Shop Date
Veronica had a coffee date scheduled with her friend. They had agreed to meet at the coffee shop downtown to talk about something very important. Veronica was a writer, and often wrote stories based on her daily life, which she often posted on her online blog. Whenever she needed inspiration for her stories if she had writer's block, she would go out and explore the world around her. If she had an interesting experience that she wanted to share with others, she would start writing immediately. The downtown coffee shop was one of Veronica's favorite places. She had a weekly ritual of spending every Sunday afternoon at the coffee shop, and everyone knew her there. The owner of the shop always gave Veronica her usual order, a small vanilla latte, because she was a regular. All the employees in the shop knew her by name. The coffee shop was also a great place for Veronica to write her stories. The result of this common literary practice was fruitful, with inspirations reflecting from the tabletops and fluttering outside the window panes. At the shop, Veronica had written over twelve stories and essays, and an assorted amount of poems. The subjects of her stories, essays, and poems ranged from laundry accidents, timely moments of friendship, love, and the very nature of the coffee shop itself. The weather was as pleasant as it could get. The shop had a handful of visitors, waiting in line to order a coffee or pastry. The brick walls with pictures of fancy artwork, rustic looking tables, sleek chairs, the sound of faint jazz music, and the strong aroma of coffee all complemented the atmosphere of the place. Veronica sat in her usual place, at her usual time, placing down her coffee cup and setting up her laptop to spare some time until her friend arrived. But there wasn't very much to write about. She seemed to ne developing a bad case of writer's block, and she didn't know what to do about it. Drinking her coffee seemed to help, but only a little bit. It seemed like it was becoming a little difficult for Veronica to write her thoughts down on her notebook, and she didn't have any creative ideas flowing. An hour later, Veronica looked at the clock on the wall, wondering what was taking her friend so long to arrive. She had been staring aimlessly out of the window after a particularly refreshing sip of coffee when she saw a flurry of movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see what it was, but it had immediately disappeared. "What in the world was that?" she thought to herself. She suddenly realized that it was one of the baristas, trying to clean up a spill on the floor that someone made. But didn't really spark her interest, because spilled coffee wasn't good writing material. She decided to look around the shop and listen to what other customers had to say. What really got her interests was the conversations between the baristas and some of the customers. A friendly-looking barista with strawberry blonde hair rang up a woman who wanted a plain coffee, but wanted it to have plenty of room for cream. The barista got the creamer container and started pouring the cream into the coffee, but then the customer began to complain. "You poured too much cream in my coffee. It's all your fault that you opened that stupid creamer thing too much. You need to add more coffee!" "Okay, not a problem!" said the barista with a smile as she added more coffee to the cup. the next customer in line ordered seven different drinks for him and his friends and then moved to pay. "That'll be twenty-four dollars," said the barista. "What?!" said the customer as he paid. "That's such a rip-off!" "I'm sorry about that, sir," said the barista. "But our prices are set by the company." The customer glared at the barista and then gave an annoyed sigh. "I was going to give you ten dollars, but you're so useless." "Well, you can still use a credit card if you have one," replied the barista. As the customer left, Veronica could see that the barista still had a smile on her face and kept working as if nothing happened. Soon, after the customer and his friends left, another customer came and placed her order. "I would like a twelve-ounce, non-fat, iced decaf latte, but I want you to put it in a larger cup." "Why would you like it in a larger cup, ma'am?" asked the barista. "Well, when you add the ice, it takes the place of some of the milk," said the customer. "I want the twelve-ounce, but in a bigger cup, so I don't lose the milk." "I can't do that, ma'am," said the barista. "I'd be giving you a larger size for the same price as the smaller size if I did that." "No, you wouldn't," said the customer. "It would be the same size, but in a larger cup, so I get the extra milk." "That would be the same as me just giving you the larger size for less," said the barista. "I don't understand why you can't just give me the small latte in a larger cup," said the customer. "Well," said the barista. "It's because..." "Oh, whatever," interrupted the customer, who was now getting a little impatient. "Just do what you have to do." "I'll see what I can do," said the barista. The barista was very clever, and she decided to make and charge the customer for a sixteen-ounce iced drink, so that she wouldn't hear any more complaints. But the customer seemed satisfied with how the barista improvised her order. It really interested Veronica how that barista could handle complaints from a few not-so-satisfied customers with such a cheerful, positive attitude. It was really fascinating how she could be fairly reasonable with them if they didn't think their orders were right. Suddenly, it was right about then that something seemed to click into Veronica's mind. "Wow!" thought Veronica. "Hearing these conversations with this optimistic barista and the customers might make a great story to write. I must get started right this instant!" Just then, a young man came and sat in the same spot as her. It was her friend, who had finally come at last and was ready to talk to her. "Hello, Veronica," said Ryan as he took his seat. "Sorry it took so long. I was just wondering if you were ready to start talking about what we should write about." "You picked the right time to ask, Ryan," said Veronica. "Take some notes, and I'll talk to you about this new idea that came to me while I was waiting for you." As Veronica sat in her usual place, she realized that she had so much that she wanted to write down. She was very eager to get started. She took out her new notebook and started writing, as if this whole experience she had at the coffee shop just flew on to the pages. Now she had so much to write about. Category:Stories Category:Short Stories